News from the coalition government

7 Jul 2010

News from the coalition government

The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, has been speaking at a public health conference today and here are a couple of extracts that cheered us up immensely:

"Working with communities and schools to develop young people’s confidence and self-esteem. Seeing diet, exercise and education about drugs, alcohol and smoking not as an end in itself, but as a means to an end, to empower young people to take better decisions when young, so that they enjoy greater health and well-being though life."

"This is why we need genuinely local strategies, based in neighbourhoods and schools. This is why we need to throw off the old ways and start seeing people and families as a whole…"

Here in the Healthy Schools team we are quietly encouraged by this news and feel heartened that this is where we have been moving in Cornwall through our exciting work on Healthy Schools which is delivering real change around emotional health and wellbeing, childhood obesity, sex and relationships education. In addition we put working with parents and carers alongside work with children and shown some real differences there.

We will look forward to seeing more about this in the promised white paper on public health later in the year.